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Natural Awakenings Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex Edition

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Climate Change Expert Bina Venkataraman to Speak at Summit

While serving as senior advisor for climate change innovation during the Obama administration, journalist, author and science policy expert Bina Venkataraman had the opportunity to help communities and businesses forge partnerships to address environmental justice and climate change policies.

Venkataraman will share her experience and expertise as keynote speaker for the Dallas College 2021 Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability Summit, which takes place virtually November 8 and 9 with the theme "Hope for the Future." She will give the keynote address at 9 a.m., November 8. Venkataraman’s 2019 book, The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age, is a collection of insights that encourage human societies to overcome an instant gratification mindset to make wiser decisions that will benefit people and the planet in the long run.

Through encouraging humans to view resources such as fisheries and waterways, old growth forests and our climate as a collective inheritance that we share as a society—akin to a treasured family heirloom passed down through generations—we can influence decisionmakers to act in the interest of sustainable stewardship and preserve natural resources for future generations.

Venkataraman’s many public speaking engagements include TED talks, National Public Radio programs, Aspen Ideas, CBS News, Chicago Ideas Week and MSNBC programs, among others. She also serves as director of global policy initiatives at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s currently the editorial page editor at The Boston Globe, where she once worked as a reporter covering metro and health/science beats.

Summit topics include Social Responsibility: Cultivating Civic Engagement; Respect for Self and Others; Civil Discourse; Reflective Structured Dialogues; Why Voting Matters; Media Literacy; Meditation: Can Mindfulness Change the World?; and Three Questions that Can Transform the World. 

Dallas College supports the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals serve as a call to action and provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the future. Venkataraman’s keynote will focus on Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities.

 

Admission is free. For more information or to register, call Lorilyn Hester at 214-273-3267, email [email protected] or visit Tinyurl.com/DallasSustainabilitySummit.